They say that technology changes reality and opens up possibilities in ways that nothing else can; the advent of satellites, for instance, frees TV in ways that governments and regulators would not

The camera`s challenge

Business Standard

That there is a divergence of views on whether India will be able to achieve the textile ministrys export target of $50 billion by the end of the decade is not surprising. Those who argue that India

Tie and die

The action by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) in unearthing the scam involving multiple benami applications for shares offered to the public is welcome and in fact was long overdue.

IPO scam

The announcement of a schedule for the India-Iran gas pipeline, running through Pakistan, is to be welcomed. It justifies the petroleum ministers focus on energy diplomacy and his insistence these

Energy deals

When elephants make love, there is a great deal of dust and the results are known after 18 months. With the just-concluded Hong Kong WTO ministerial, it will take even longeraround eight years, till

Draw at Hong Kong

It is not easy to be a big-bulge pharmaceutical company. The US District Courts recent ruling against Ranbaxy Laboratories for marketing a generic version of Pfizers atorvastatin (Lipitor brand), a

Courtroom lottery

Reservations, either for jobs or in educational institutions, have been an article of faith in India ever since the Constitution was adopted, though the results have been less than satisfactory and

Beyond Mandal

Given the mood in the Delhi assembly, and the law and order situation that is building up, no one should be surprised if the current court-ordered demolition drive in the capital comes to an end soon.

Demolition derby

An increasingly competitive media and growing financial insecurity amongst politicians have come together to create a flutter. Everybody knows, and has discounted the fact, that politicians are like

Economics of politics

Conventional wisdom that India is the place to be in if youre in software, and China if youre in hardware, looks like its about to be turned on its head, with about $22 billion of foreign

Software to hardware

Few people, even from the BJP, which has lost 6 MPs, will be sorry to the see the 11 expelled MPs go. The BJP has tried to make out that the poor fellows (who were caught by a hidden camera accepting

Good riddance, but...

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has become the owner of the most lucrative sports asset in the world. This is because Air Sahara has won the bid to be the Indian cricket teams

Sports and economics

The export numbers for November 2005, released last week, came as a surprise. Aggregate exports, which have been growing handsomely for some time now, declined by 11 per cent compared to the

Blip or trend?

A 75-year-old ideology in a 25-year-old body: that is the central dilemma confronting the BJP as it celebrates its silver jubilee. There is nothing special about this. It happens to almost every

25 at 75

Despite the pick-up in excise duty collections last month (it rose 15.7 per cent, compared to 8.6 per cent for the April-November period as a whole), the underperformance under this head has become a

Sluggish excise

Since people have a tendency to remember different years for a single overarching or overwhelming event in their lives, Indian politicians will probably remember 2005 as the year when their sins began

It never rains

The government is caught in a cleft stick on the matter of privatising the countrys two main airports at Delhi and Mumbai. It does not like the results of the tendering exercise so far (only two

Stuck on the runway

Its easy for cynical journalists and weary citizens to scoff at the utility of the newly legislated Right to Information Act (RTI), and to say we-told-you-so when it doesnt deliver anything

Now shape the law

A big bang in Delhi is always more newsworthy than an even bigger one somewhere else. That is perhaps why the three Delhi blasts of October 29, which killed 59 people, received much more attention

Blood on the tracks

India has so far been fortunate in escaping the dreaded bird influenza which broke out in an epidemic form in its neighbourhood in 2003 and has done so again now. But today the threat is vastly

Combating bird flu

The burden of Finance Minister P Chidambarams constant efforts to raise tax revenue need not fall heavily on the entire middle class if he directs his attention towards the sectional tax sops handed

Taxing concessions

Incisive columns and editorial comment by top opinion leaders

Page 301 - Editorial Comment